


Monkey Business

by oliveinthecloset



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 12:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8891635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliveinthecloset/pseuds/oliveinthecloset
Summary: After exposing of the predator-prey scandal to public, Nick and Judy embark on another adventure to solve crime and make Zootopia a safer place to live.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silo18](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silo18/gifts).



***  


Judy’s POV  


“Carrots?” 

I blink twice, not realizing I had completely zoned out. I quickly peer over at my partner, his green eyes staring straight at me. I blush, realizing I had just been thinking about him. ‘It’s been two weeks since Nick officially graduated from the Zootopia Police Academy. We’ve come a long way since we’ve first met. He was a hustler not long ago, and now we’re a team.’

My gaze lowers towards his chest. I notice that beside his official police badge, there was a frayed sticker, with the adhesiveness slowly coming off. I chuckle to myself. ’He’s still wearing that silly police badge sticker I gave him when I first hustled him into our very first case together.’

Nick raises his eyebrows, looking concerned. 

I lightly place my paw on his arm and reassure him with a soft smile. 

His gaze relaxes and his features soften. “So, what should we do about our newest case?”  


***

We had just finished solving our first case of the mysterious speed racer terrorizing the streets of Zootopia. The culprit ended up being one of Nick’s old buddies, Flash. For someone who was so painfully slow that even just looking at him made me want to peel my eyelids off, he was one damn fast speed demon. You may think that’s because I’m a bunny, but I pride myself in being the most patient out of my hundred tireless siblings. When we brought him into the police station, to our surprise, Chief Bogo – of all people – congratulated us for beating the fastest record for solving a case in Zootopia history. 

Now, just days later, Nick and I are on our second official case together. According to the case file in front of me, animals have once again started to disappear one by one. So far, five animals have been missing. This was eerily similar to the Bellwether case which had saved my career from ending at its start, except the victims were not predators, but upstanding citizens. The only thing that connects them all is the fact that none of them believed in underlying primal instincts. They proudly spoke of how the prey-predator divide does not exist, but was merely a social construct. 

What connected them all was the fact that these animals didn’t believe in underlying primal instincts.

***

Nick gazes intently into my eyes, his brows furrowed together once again. 

“Oh! Right.” My cheeks flush and I look down at my knees. I had completely forgotten he was still waiting for my response to his question. I’ve got stop letting him catch me like this. 

Nick chuckles, letting out a low, soft, rumble from his chest. “Carrots, what does our case file say?” He notices that I look puzzled. “It’s sitting on your lap”. 

I glare at him and send him an unsettling stare. That fox, thinking he’s so clever. I flip open the front cover of the case file and of course there’s only one piece of evidence. Chief Bogo is going to be the death of us one day. I roll my eyes. “It’s a picture which shows the last known whereabouts of Mr. Heavy, the hippo who works full-time as a ballerina in the nearest theatre.” 

I scan the picture from top to bottom. “According to those street signs, this happened on the corner of Moogle.” 

“Isn’t that one of the largest private corporations in Zootopia?” 

“Yeah.” I respond, unsure where he was going with this. 

“Hn.” 

“What is it?” My voice, sharp with impatience. 

“Don’t you find it strange that it’s the largest corporations in our city, but yet we know nothing about their proprietors? We can’t put any face to their name.” Nick insists. 

I ponder for a few moments. We know that Moogle is the exclusive provider of all our surveillance cameras, which explains why they’re a multi-million grossing company. But Nick’s right, we’ve never seen anyone from their executive team on the streets, in news broadcasts, or even in TV commercials. My heart pounds faster. 

Clever fox. This time without disdain, but pure amazement. My amethyst eyes twinkle with excitement. “I think you’re onto something here. Let’s head back to the station to gather more information.” 

I grin from ear to ear, my energy levels growing inside me. I watch Nick lean back into his seat, knowing he can’t stop me once my blood starts boiling. “Clawhauser, we’re coming home.” My foot slams on the gas pedal, leaving a cloud of dust behind us.  


***  


We enter the front doors of the police station and walk towards the front desk where our favourite Cheese Poof was, staring at his cellphone. 

“Hey Clawhauser.”

“Oh my god, Judy! You have to see this! I just downloaded this new app on my phone. It’s like you’re actually singing along with Gazelle, live!” His eyes lit up with glee. 

“Now’s not the time! We’ve got a potential culprit and we have to go investigate.” I whine impatiently, wanting to chase our new lead in the case. 

“Oh Carrots. No need to get your rabbit’s foot in a knot. We always have time to listen to Cheese Poof’s stories.” Nick grins. He knew it would get on my nerve, just like the time at the DMV with the sloths. He’s enjoying this way too much. 

“No. You aren’t doing this again!” I glare at him, my eye daggers bouncing off him. I take a few steps forward and walk closer to the front desk. I take out the photo from my pocket and push it towards Clawhauser. “Please. What do you know about Moogle?” 

“Well, I guess Moogle has a pretty stellar reputation with the Zootopia Police Department. From a professional standpoint, nobody’s ever complained about their services since they do such a good job with the cameras.” He flicks me a look to build the tension. 

“Well?” I insist, while tapping my foot impatiently. 

He glances around before leaning closer to us. In a hushed voice, he explains, “Word on the street is that when they first established themselves, their workers looked nothing like any other mammals you’ve seen.” He pauses. 

“Take or leave this next part, but my family has passed a rumour down our bloodline for generations. They say that monkeys used to roam the Earth alongside mammals. The reason why we don’t talk about them is that no one alive has seen them in the last hundred years.”

“But that’s just a myth. There are no such things as monkeys. Same as how there’s no such things as unicorns or humans.” I chime in, dismissing what he had said moments before. He’s just being theatrical again. 

“Well, take it or leave it, but my family’s always asserted that they’ve got something to do with monkeys. That Moogle is a front for their operations,” he shrugs. 

Nick and I share a glance for a moment, before staring back at Chewhauser. Suddenly, we burst into laughter, our roaring noises filling the atrium. There’s no way that he is actually being serious right now. As we turn around and head back out that front door to do our own investigation at the Moogle grounds, his crazy idea was already forgotten. 

What we didn’t notice in the picture at that time, was a curly brown tail poking out from behind one of the Moogle buildings, just before disappearing into the shadows. 

***

It is 2PM when our car enters the shadows of the Moogle compound long before we finally slide to a halt in front of their Eastern gate. Wow. I strain my neck upwards in an attempt to see the top of their tallest building and the sheer size of their operations. 

As we roll up beside the security booth right before the gate, I notice how strange it was, with its normal proportions, sitting outside the looming, giant structures that it guards. We see an elephant guard sitting right inside the window, reading an outdated Zootopia newspaper. Boy, he must not be used to having any visitors. Just the huge walls surrounding this place makes me want to turn back and drive the other way. 

My thoughts suddenly became interrupted as Nick leans in and whispers, “If we release a mouse into his booth, do you think the elephant will run away?” 

“Now’s not the time!” I slap him playfully on the arm, while hiding my appreciation for him that he just broke the building tension in my thoughts. 

“Excuse me sir.” 

The elephant shot a quick glance at us before turning back to the article he was reading. 

“Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, ZPD, requesting to enter your premises.” 

“On what grounds?” He scoffed, looking unimpressed. 

“We have reason to believe that Moogle is connected to the disappearance of 5 missing animals from Zootopia so far. We’d like to speak with the CEO of the company.” 

He was just about to send us packing when he suddenly received a call on his radio. 

“Toots, let them in.” 

“—But sir.” 

“No questions asked.” 

“Yes sir, right away sir.” 

The elephant shoots a quick glare at us, before hitting a button below his desk. Suddenly, the sounds of huge gears and levers threaten to render us deaf as the tall, thick gates slowly crank open in front of us. 

“You may proceed” the guard mumbles. “Head to the purple building about a mile down and head up the elevator to the 46th floor.”

I glance over at Nick to see him staring back at me. I knew he shared my thought of how weird that exchange was, but we shrug it off, thinking it must have been a coincidence. 

The gates finally come to a halt and we drive forward, not knowing what we were walking into, and unable to see the end of the road we were driving down…

***  


Ding. 

The elevator doors open up, revealing the most beautiful space I’ve ever seen. State-of-the-art floor-to-ceiling window panes on all sides of the office. Antique furniture dating back to the early 1900’s. A breathtaking view of the city. If you take an even closer look out the window, you could see the bustling activity in the town square as animals are rushing through their daily lives. Wow, I think in shock. I didn’t my room to begin with, but this makes me feel like I live in a cardboard box!

“This must be what it’s like working for the private sector, rather than the public sector. Carrots. We’ve gone into the wrong field,” Nick smirks.

I laugh. “Can you even imagine the upkeep of this place? No thanks.” 

After several minutes, we both conclude that someone might have called us up here, but there was no one in the room waiting for us. We continue searching the room for any potential clues that might give us a further lead. 

“Hey Carrots, check this out.” Nick yells from the other side of the office. He points to a picture frame that’s sitting by itself on a coffee table at the edge of the room. 

I peer closer. Inside the frame was a picture of an animal that I’ve never seen before in my life. It was brown and hairy creature with a flat nose, large ears, and a long tail. Hmm, why does this seem so familiar to me? 

Suddenly, Clawhauser’s words chimes into my head. Monkeys live among us. I shake my head a little bit to clear my thoughts. There was no way. Is there any merit to what the Cheese Poof told us earlier? 

Nick walks over to me, brows furrowed with concern. “Everything alright?” 

I hesitate before I said my next words. I didn’t want to sound crazy in front of my partner. I take a deep breath. “…Do you think that Clawhauser was telling the truth about monkeys living among us?” 

Nick stares at me in disbelief. “You can’t tell me you actually believe what Cheese Poof told us earlier. He loves Gazelle and his dream is to be one of her back-up dancers. He’s orange-coloured from all the shit ton of cheese puffs he eats on a regular basis, for fuck’s sake.”

I knew I sounded crazy but my gut feeling was telling me to keep prying. “How about you head back to the station. I think I’m going to continue searching around this place.”

Nick chuckles at my stubbornness. He knew he wouldn’t be able to convince me otherwise but he looked like he was ready to head out. “Alright, whatever floats your boat. Meet me there around 6PM? Can’t wait for you to tell me this was a waste of time and how right I am.” He shoots me a toothy grin. 

I shoot him back a glare. “Game on.” As I watch him walk back into the elevator, I chuckle to myself. I know he might seem like a smug bastard from the outside, but on the inside he’s actually such a sweetheart. 

I continue to search the room. 

***  


Nick’s POV

6:15PM. 

I stand at the doors of the police station, watching the long hand of the clock hit three. That’s strange, Judy has never been late before. It goes against her nature to be late.

“Hey Clawhauser, have you seen Hopps?” 

“Nope. Weren’t you with her earlier?” He responds with a muffled voice, his mouth filled with orange cheese puffs. 

“Yeah, but I left her back at the Moogle compounds…” I trail off, getting lost in my thoughts. Seeing the cheese puff sticking out of Clawhauser’s mouth suddenly reminded me of the earlier conversation that I had with Hopps. I didn’t believe her, and now she’s late to our meet-up. Something doesn’t seem right. I start to feel guilty. 

I should go look for her. I head back out into the dark night, back to the last place I saw her, hoping to find a clue that can bring her back to me. 

***  


I make it back to the same room. The room that had been permeated with sunlight and warmth in every corner, was now darkened with shadows settling into every crack and crevice. 

Earlier, the sunlight had permeated every corner of the room and filled it with warmth. Now that the sun had set, the room was empty with shadows settling into every crack and crevice. Sigh. I take a deep breath before I continue with my search. 

As I keep exploring the room, I notice a shimmer in my far right-hand corner of my eye. I walk towards it. As I approach the object, I realize it was the same photograph I showed to Hopps earlier. The last thing I said to her was shooting her idea down before she had the chance to explain herself. That can’t be the last thing I say to her. It just can’t.  


I raise my finger and press it against the picture frame. Stupid Cheese Poof. If he hadn’t gotten those ideas into Hopps’ head, she wouldn’t have disappeared in the first place. But then again, what if I was wrong? Why didn’t I give her a chance to explain herself? 

I shake my head to rid myself of those thoughts. There’s no point in trying to rationalize all of this. What matters is that I find Hopps and to get to the bottom of this. I continue searching the room for anything I might have missed earlier. 

As I continue searching the room, I notice a door that I didn’t see the first time I was here. It’s gray in colour and the style of the door definitely backdated it to the mid 1990’s. It definitely does not look like it belongs here with the rest of the modern décor. Was this even here before? 

I slowly sneak towards the door, very aware that the hair on my back was standing on its end. I take a deep breath, grasp the door knob, and push it forward. It swings back with no resistance. Okay, Fox. You got this. You bring home Hopps. 

I take a small step through the door.

“Carrots?” I cry out meekly. “Are you there?” 

I inch a few more steps forward. I’m very conscious of my every breath I’m taking. 

“Carrots?” 

Suddenly, I see a faint shadow shoot across my left side. My heart pounds faster. 

“Hopps?!” 

My body starts running after the shadow before I even process what has happened. In the commotion, I didn’t realize someone had started to come up behind me. 

“Judy!” 

Everything around me starts to fade as the world goes hazy, and her name keeps resounding in my head over and over again until I lose consciousness. Everything went dark. 

***  


The ground beneath me was warm. The soft murmuring in the background had slowly drawn me out of my daze. Everything feel like a blur. I feel like the TV static that you try so hard to tune into the right image, but you can’t pinpoint the exact frequency. 

After a few minutes, the image in front of my eyes start to form a gray blur that seem to resemble Judy, but I couldn’t be sure. 

“Nick…” 

I shut my eyes to focus on the soft voice calling my name. 

“Nick…”

I focus on the sound of voice to bring me back.

“Nick.”

I blink a few times, and finally everything comes into focus. 

“Nick! I’m so glad you’re okay!”  
I blink in disbelief. It was Judy in front of me. And she wasn’t tied up on the ground or blindfolded by her kidnappers. She looks genuinely happy to see me. 

“Carrots?” my voice was able to make out. 

I look down below me and realize I was sitting in a chair. A comfy chair at that. “What is going on here? Why are we not tied up?” 

“It’s a long story” she sighs. “But now everything makes sense – from the disappearing animals, to the stories Clawhauser told us, to the picture frame we found in the office.” 

My brows furrow with confusion. I continue to stare at her, urging her to continue. What she told me after that, changed everything we thought was real. 

***

Third-Person POV 

Judy and Nick’s reality was shattered. Despite how kooky Chewhauser may be, it turned out he and his ancestors were right all along. Monkeys have been alive for the last hundred years and they have existed among us. 

Thousands of years ago, monkeys started to evolve faster than all the other animals around them. They developed opposable thumbs, and eventually were able to construct a common tongue for everyone in their species to understand each other. 

With their sped-up evolution, they slowly became unable to communicate with their other friends in the animal kingdom. They were unable to evolve backwards and this terrified them. In order to connect with their friends again, they started to conduct research on their own development. Hopefully, they would be able to uncover some hidden truth to speed up the evolution of the other species. This eventually grew to become Moogle, as they know it. With their surveillance technology, they have been able to monitor the changes within Zootopia. 

Since the recent reveal of the predator-prey scandal, the event acted as a major catalyst for evolution towards a more civilized future. Lately, the monkeys observed how some animals were going beyond their primal instincts and have transcended away from the world of discrimination. They wanted to observe these animals in close quarters, so they invited Mr. Heavy into their lab, as one of their participants. They meant no harm to these animals. 

Judy and Nick were captured because there were prime subjects that sparked this whole change. They were both the first of their species to transcend animal labels and to graduate from the Zootopia Police Academy. 

With this discovery, the monkeys may have found the key to bring their brethren together again and all live as a complete animal kingdom. 

***

From Nick’s POV

“I’m glad that’s over.” I watch Hopps stretch out her limbs as far as she could reach above her. Her giddy smile bringing back some warmth into my day. 

“You want to know something?” I ask. 

“Sure, fox,” she chimes, half-listening, half distracted by the steps in front of her. 

I smile because I know she isn’t really paying attention to what I’m saying. She was just happy to have solved another case and also a mystery that had plagued us for a while. 

“I’m never letting you out of my sights again, Carrots.” 

“Hmm? What did you say?” 

“Oh nothing. I’m just glad that it’s over too.” She didn’t have to know the sense of loss I felt when she disappeared and I thought she was gone. I’m just glad she’s here now. 

“Are you ready, Carrots?” I shoot her a large grin. 

“As ready as I can be, clever fox.” She smiles back. 

***

THE END


End file.
